TUESDAY: Rain showers continue to linger over southern and eastern NM. These showers will hang around for the majority of the day with significant cloud cover blanketing the central and southern portion of the state. Due to yesterday’s Pacific front, temperatures will be 5-10 degrees cooler than what we felt Monday – most of us sitting in the 40s and 50s by late day. Breezy conditions will return to western and central NM, although, winds be drastically slower than Monday night – expect north-northwest winds to keep to 10-20mph today. Spot showers will continue to pop up over the Northwest Plateau and Southeast Plains today, although, coverage will be limited. Snow showers are likely to continue over the southern San Juan Mountains with a few hit-or-miss snow showers likely to develop over the Northern Mountains.

OVERNIGHT: Another Arctic cold front will move in over the Northeast Plains overnight into Wednesday morning allowing temperatures to plummet and snow chances to climb.

WEDNESDAY: Expect afternoon high temperatures to stay put in the 20s and 30s across the Eastern Plains. A wintry mix is possible east of the Central Mountains with snow likely along the eastern slopes of the Sangre de Cristo, Manzano, Sandia and Sacramento Mountains.

Yet another storm system is headed into New Mexico tonight. The storm will push a cold front up on the west slopes of the northern mountains and dump more snow. Meanwhile, here in the Albuquerque metro area we will pick up a mix of rain and snow overnight. We likely won’t see a lot in the way of accumulating snow but we should see gusty winds and at least some showers. Tomorrow, temperatures will be a bit cooler with more mountain snow showers.

The final gasp in this very stormy pattern will come in on Wednesday in the form of a backdoor cold front. This front will bank up against the northern mountains and more specifically the east slopes dumping even more snow. After the front slides down the east side of the state and cools down a good portion of New Mexico will see drier and warmer conditions toward the weekend.

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) – The snow storm of the decade that swept through Albuquerque left behind a lot of damage ranging from roofs, to cars, to roads. Now, the city’s trying to figure out how to fix all the grooves, bumps and potholes that have appeared since the snow melted away.

“I have seen some potholes that are maybe12 inches in diameter and maybe two, three inches deep,” said Charlie Lujan.

“This morning I hit a couple very big ones on Academy,” said Maria Lamar.

The intersection near Academy and Ventura is lined with potholes. Along Lomas there are craters in the road.

The holes are likely a result of the monster storm that hit Albuquerque last week.

“We have crews out there around the city evaluating and assessing the damage that was caused as a result of this storm,” said Mayor R.J. Berry’s Chief of Staff Gilbert Montano.

So far, the storm has cost the city about $300,000. That’s including the cost of maintaining the snow plows and employee overtime.

“it was a very consequential storm,” said Montano.

The city said it’s first priority was maintaining public safety during the wild weather. Now, it’s focusing on the damage like the new potholes.

“Crews will be out in mass to rectify and fill those gaps or holes as quickly as possible,” said Montano.

Residents are hoping something get done soon.

“I just wish they would do a better job and spend more money on the streets,” said Lujan.

“I certainly think it’s going to cause damage to some vehicles until they can get them fixed,” said Lamar.

City employees worked nearly 700 overtime hours during the storm. APD responded to more than 400 crashes.

The city says if you see new potholes or any other storm damage call 311.

NM Businesses and Storm Damage

Businesses, like towing companies and roofers, have also been busy with what the storm has left behind.

Employees at Dugger’s Towing have seen smashed bumpers, flat tires and shattered windows since Thursday night.

“It started getting very very crazy,” Owner Vance Dugger said. “People were sliding into curbs, hitting popping their tires as well as dead batteries.”

On Friday alone, Dugger’s responded to more than 220 service calls. That’s more than three times the normal amount of calls.

“This is usually we use this time to rebuild, repaint all of our trucks re-image because it’s usually typically slow,” Dugger said.

APD said there were nearly 420 crashes reported on Friday and Saturday. Now that the roads are clear, Dugger’s is still busy.

“All of these calls on the GPS are all Albuquerque,” Duggar said. “Most people were leaving their vehicles there yesterday and calling us today to get them out.”

Roofing companies were swamped too after all this snow quickly melted Sunday, leaking into to homes around the city.

People say they welcome the snow.

“I enjoy the snow i just wish that it would come more periodically not all at once,” Maria Lamar said.

AAA said it responded to more than 800 calls from Friday through Sunday more than double their normal business.

Auto repair companies have also been busy. Quanz said its business also doubled over the weekend.

MONDAY: Patchy freezing fog is lingering over portions of east-central NM – this pesky fog will continue to burn off as we head towards the later part of today. A few light rain showers continue to hang on across south-central NM with more shower activity expected to build in later this evening. A cold front will near the state from the northwest late this afternoon — kicking up the winds and dragging in more shower activity over western NM. Most of what will fall today will fall as rain as high temperatures warm into the 50s and 60s for most lower elevations. Higher elevations of the Jemez, Sangre de Cristo and Gila Mountains are favored for more of a rain and snow mix. Portions of the San Juan Mountains will continue to see heavy snow showers with another +12 inches of accumulation possible. Winds will be gusty over the northern and central parts of the state – sustained speeds looking to exceed +20mph and gusts +25mph. Due to a tremendous amount of recent snowfall, blowing snow will likely be an issue for areas within the Northern Mountains as gusty winds exceed +30mph in the higher elevations.

TUESDAY: Monday’s cold front will keep Tuesday’s afternoon temperatures down a bit — most of the state cooling more than 10-15 degrees. Spotty rain showers will continue across northern and central NM with snow showers likely to continue over the higher elevations of the Northern Mountains.

WEDNESDAY: This week’s drying trend will kick off late Wednesday with mostly to partly cloudy conditions paired with a few spot rain showers. Afternoon temperatures will drop dramatically for areas east of the Central Mountains as another strong cold front allows Arctic air to fill in over the Eastern Plains. Wednesday will likely be the coldest day of the work week for most of the state.

LATE WORK WEEK: A warm up will kick off Thursday & Friday as temperatures return to near average for most of New Mexico. More sunshine & even warmer temperatures are expected into the weekend.

In that same area, several cars slid into each other creating accidents that emergency crews had a hard time reaching.

APS schools

An even worse storm hit back in 2006, shutting schools down for days, but unlike that storm, school is on for Monday morning.

Parking lots have already been cleared. A crew of 30 spent Saturday going school to school plowing snow and clearing it from roofs.

A. Montoya Elementary in Tijeras and the two other APS East Mountain schools were hit the hardest, but so far, the district says it’s only seen minor problems.

“Crews are working today and some crews will work tomorrow, whatever, and then we’ll be prepared, we’ll see what the weather brings us Sunday night and then we’ll have crews out very early Monday morning,” said John Dufay, director of APS Operations and Maintenance.

The winter weather closed more than just school on Friday. All oh the city’s libraries, museums, and community centers were closed Saturday.

Animals at the zoo saw a rare snow day. Zoo officials plan to open up Sunday morning so long as the sidewalks are clear of ice.

Some of the animals hunkered down Saturday while, others were loving it. It was perfect day to be a polar bear or snow leopard in Albuquerque. They both soaked in the kind of day that only rolls around once in a decade at the zoo.

“The polar bears – this is their kind of weather. A lot of the tropical animals, some of the primates, some of the birds – they have to be inside when it’s cold and snowy like this,” said BioPark bird curator Peter Shannon.

It was the first time the zoo has closed for the day since that hurricane-like storm blew in back in the summer 2013 and knocked down trees and damaged exhibits.

With this storm, the concern was clearing sidewalks and paths of snow and ice for the humans.

Police and wreckers were busy for hours clearing roads Friday into Saturday. While some chose to take the chance and travel, others stayed home. Some enjoyed the plaza and others ventured out to Hyde Memorial State Park.

East Mountains

Parts of the East Mountains saw close to a foot of snow. One truck driver said he missed his turn and got stuck in a parking lot.

Driving wasn’t much of an issue by the afternoon and residents said the soft snow wasn’t too hard to handle unless they were shoveling it.

Locals took advantage of the fresh powder and went sledding off the highway while others just enjoyed the change of scenery.

“It’s the excitement of waking up to a good white morning and seeing everything around,” said Victor Maness, an East Mountains resident.

Rio Rancho

Rio Rancho drivers sprayed slush on the sidewalks Saturday. Some people used the snow day to do chores, like shoveling the driveway or getting food at empty grocery stores. Others played in the snow and took their dogs out to enjoy the fresh powder.

A cold front is going to roll into New Mexico on Monday and that is going to crank up the wind along with rain and more snow chances for the northern mountains. The snow will be above 9500 feet with the San Juans of Southern Colorado picking up the most by Tuesday morning. In central and southern New Mexico, temperatures will be too warm for snow to fall so we will see the rain and could even hear a few rumbles of thunder. Temperatures will drop some for parts of New Mexico on Tuesday before another cold front enters the northeast dropping temperatures back below average. We start to dry out and warm back up by the end of the week into next weekend.

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) – The biggest snow day in nearly a decade forced the Rio Grande Zoo to have a rare snow day, closing their gates to the public.

While some of the animals hunkered down, others loved it. It was the perfect day to be a polar bear or snow leopard in Albuquerque.

“The polar bears, this is their kind of weather,” said Peter Shannon, bird curator with the zoo. “A lot of the tropical animals, some of the primates, some of the birds, they have to be inside when it’s cold and snowy like this.”

Shannon said any animal that needed indoor shelter had it.

It was the first time the zoo had a weather related closer since the hurricane-like storm in the summer of 2013 that knocked down trees and damaged exhibits.

With this storm, the concern was clearing sidewalks and paths of snow and ice for the humans.

The zoo says as long as the snow melts off and there’s no icy mess, the doors should be open on Sunday.

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) – The storm that hit New Mexico didn’t spare the Albuquerque Sunport. But crews raced against the snowflakes to keep the runways open.

Driver Adrian Garcia was one of the truck drivers trying to keep up with the snowfall.

“I’ve been working all morning to get this cleared out,” he said.

Garcia drove a big rig with a giant round broom on the front that swept snow off the runways. He worked all Friday night and into Saturday afternoon.

“We did one pass by the time it got to the end here, it was already covered in snow again,” Garcia said.”It was unbelievable. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Garcia said so much snow fell he thought they would have to close the runways.

“We all made a team effort out here and kept it going. Like I said, the way it looked this morning, I thought it was going to shut down but we got it,” Garcia said.

By noon Saturday, the runways were clear and mostly dry. But only a few planes took off and landed.

Some travelers were baffled by all the cancellations.

“You made a terrible decision,” said an irate passenger to a Southwest ticket agent trying to fly out Saturday. “I seen two flights take off already and airplanes are sitting on the tarmac. So you can argue all you want but I can see what’s going on.”

Ticket agents told passengers they wouldn’t get out Saturday or possibly even this weekend.

“I came in 10 minutes ago and they were like yeah, there’s nothing until Tuesday. I was just like oh no. So now it’s the mad dash to get a hotel,” said Jess Voss trying to fly home to Maine.

Joe Jenkins was told he won’t be flying to Dallas Saturday night.

“I’ve got a hotel reservation and I’m now considering driving to Dallas. But I don’t know what the weather is like,” he said.

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) – The weekend snow storm has kept Albuquerque Public Schools busy even though classes aren’t in session.

The district called out extra crews who spent much of Saturday surveying buildings for damage and prepping what they could in anticipation for school to resume on Monday. APS’ operations and maintenance division had about 30 people working Saturday, about five times the number of people on a normal weekend crew.

“Checking roofs, HVAC making sure furnaces, making sure boilers are working, operational, we have grounds crews out doing parking lots starting to asses what’s on the east side,’ said John Dufay, operations and maintenance director for APS.

So far, APS says it hasn’t had any problems with the snow, even though this is one of the worst types of storms for school buildings.

“You really have a hard snow, you have cold, you have hot, they don’t mix well,” said Dufay.

Dufay says things could have been much worse though.

“The good thing is we didn’t have lots of wind the last day, day and a half or so, the wind really causes more havoc because it gives that refrigeration effect on our pipes and on the mechanical systems,” said Dufay.

The district says its three east mountain schools, (San Antonito and A Montoya elementaries, Roosevelt Middle School) and one learning site at the Sandia Mountain Natural History Center were hit the worst. Crews spent Saturday plowing at A. Montoya Elementary in Tijeras.

“Crews are working today and some crews will work tomorrow, whatever, and then we’ll be prepared, we’ll see what the weather brings us Sunday night and then we’ll have crews out very early Monday morning,” said Dufay.

APS has also been surveying schools in the Albuquerque foothills like Eldorado High, Apache and Double Eagle Elementary schools. One of the top priorities is making sure the parking lots and walkways are clear of heavy snow and ice.

“We start testing, we start doing a lot of things Monday, we don’t want any interruptions, we want it to be as comfortable for the kids and teachers and staff as it can be,” said Dufay.

While the warmer temperatures melted a lot of snow Saturday, some schools are faring better than others because they were plowed on Friday in anticipation of school. Despite the left over slush Saturday, Dufay says he’s confident now that things will be ready to go Monday, barring any more severe weather.

“We feel very good about the schools being ready for Monday,” said Dufay.

DURANGO, Colo. (KRQE)- The snow will continue to slam the Northern Mountains through the remainder of the weekend into the early workweek. So far, we have dealt with a cold storm crossing the state. That pattern is now shifting to a flow pattern off the Pacific. We’ll continue to ride moisture over the state allowing for snow over the mountains while the valley locations change over to rain. However, the snow at the higher elevations will become much heavier as warmer air is introduced into the middle levels of the atmosphere.

The biggest concern going forward will be the weight of that heavy snow on buildings. The heavy snow could become too much for some roofs to handle. We saw this in February 2008 in Chama when the roof of the Chama Valley Supermarket collapsed under the weight of snow. We have already seen 2 – 3 feet of snow over the Northern Mountains, and could still pick up at least another 2 feet making this a real concern over the next few days.

]]>http://krqe.com/2015/02/28/snow-continues-to-slam-northern-mountains/feed/0Sun, 01 Mar 2015 01:47:36 +0000krqeshelbypereaStorm Snow Totalshttp://krqe.com/2015/02/28/storm-snow-totals/
http://krqe.com/2015/02/28/storm-snow-totals/#commentsSat, 28 Feb 2015 21:49:41 +0000http://krqe.com/?p=102822]]>ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) – Parts of central and northern New Mexico have received what meteorologists say is a record-breaking snowfall. The National Weather Service says a “snow band” developed over Albuquerque and Santa Fe, leading to as much as 1 inch of snow per hour for several hours.

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) – Much of snow and ice the city saw Friday and overnight Saturday melted in the metro area. Many roads are wet and slushy, and that’s a big concern if temperatures drop.

It’s the biggest snowstorm to hit the metro in eight-years. Driving from Albuquerque to Rio Rancho on NM 528 was nearly impossible Saturday morning.

“Everybody was going 2, 3 miles an hour, it just, you can’t even walk on it,” said Albuquerque driver, Larry Steckel.

“I tried to brake a little bit at the top and I just had no traction, so I slid all the way down here,” said Sally Wichmann, of Rio Rancho. Her car slid on ice about a block, before another car slid into hers.

Emergency crews had a hard time reaching the crashes, and sometimes became part of them.

“The car jumped the curb and now I need to get towed out, and they can’t even get anybody in here to tow ya,” Steckel said.

But that wasn’t the only problem spot. KRQE News 13 spotted abandoned cars near I-25 and Tramway. One vehicle crashed into a ditch. Police responded to a rollover on the interstate, and drivers lost control along I-25 between Paseo and Alameda.

“Well you have no control, and I had my son in the car, so it’s scary,” Wichman recalled.

The Department of Transportation is monitoring all state roads to let drivers know about problem spots. Meanwhile, the city will spread salt and cinder in town just in case the wet roads start to ice over.

“We could have black ice, that’s probably the biggest concern tonight,” explained Wilfred Gallegos, Director of Municipal Development for the City of Albuquerque. City crews had 29 snow plows out Friday night and Saturday morning. They have crews working overtime and on standby in case conditions get worse.

Temperatures warmed up this afternoon and the snow started melting quickly in Albuquerque. But, tonight temperatures could dip to near freezing so roads could re-freeze especially the bridges and overpasses. So if you’re heading out tonight or first thing on Sunday give yourself some extra time. Rain showers will develop by Sunday afternoon with heavy snow possible in our Northern Mountains into the San Juans of Southern Colorado. Some areas could get as much as 15-30″ of snow by Monday morning and even more chances are ahead through the middle of the week. Stay with KRQE News 13 for more winter weather updates.

Snow will continue in the Albuquerque metro area through the evening hours and into early tonight. An additional 2” – 4” is expected in the city. Winter Storm Warnings continue for Albuquerque tonight. Meanwhile, Winter Storm Warnings continue across the Northern Mountains and Southern Colorado. Another 1 – 2 feet of snow is expected at resort level in the Northern Mountains. The San Juans of Colorado could be looking at another 2 – 4 feet before everything is said and done. Even the town of Durango can expect upwards of a foot of snow.

Snow will taper off across Albuquerque overnight as the snow band lifts north. As moisture continues to flow in from the Pacific, it will continue to fuel snow over the northern high terrain through the weekend. Lower elevations will start to see any showers change over to mix, then eventually rain into early next week.

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) – This storm has inspired a lot of people to grab their cameras. Here’s a look across the state, through the eyes of KRQE News 13 viewers. Please keep those pictures coming, send them into ReportIt!.

After a wave of snow moved through overnight, another round is getting ready to move back in this afternoon. This will bring another round of moderate to heavy snow along I-40 and to the north later this afternoon into Saturday morning. Albuquerque could pick up an additional 1-3 inches of snow along with Santa Fe. This snow will taper off by tomorrow afternoon, but we will continue to have enough moisture drawn in to spark more mountain snow and valley mixes off and on throughout the weekend. The snow and rain chances will continue into the middle of next week. Stay with KRQE News 13 more winter weather updates.

FRIDAY: A few pockets of light snow will linger over central and eastern NM this morning. Roads and highways are very slick, icy and snow-packed. Make sure to give yourself plenty of time to get where you need to go this morning. Temperatures are frigid with the majority of us waking up to teens and 20s. Cloudy conditions will persist into this afternoon with another shot of rain and snow likely to clip the west, northwest and northern portions of NM. Higher elevations of the Sangre de Cristo, Jemez and San Juan Mountains are likely to pick up another 6″-10″ by Saturday morning.

A WINTER STORM WARNING is in effect for the Albuquerque-metro until 5 p.m. Friday evening.

Be sure to stay with the KRQE Weather Team for the latest winter weather updates.